


Blooming Flowers and Dying Fires

by TheTacticianAlchemist



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hoshido | Birthright Route, feat. life advice from Scarlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 01:46:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9694388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTacticianAlchemist/pseuds/TheTacticianAlchemist
Summary: “Well, if the gods permit me to ask such a selfish thing of you,” she says, wiping at the new tears forming in her eyes, “Will you tell me you love me?”





	

**Author's Note:**

> really simple, but all I had time to come up with for Valentine's

Azura is sick again.

Kamui bites his lip and paces the room. Since his dragon blood awakened in him, he’s become prone to some rather…animalistic habits. Pacing, gnawing a little too much on his dinner, and he’s also quite weak to back scratches and tummy rubs—Azura giggled when she promised to remain quiet about that. But, even with the slightest provocation, he paces. And now, he’s been pacing for hours.

He glances toward the futon, where she’s curled up on her side, facing the wall. Her shaking and pained gasps from earlier have subsided into soft breathing, thank the gods. He found her earlier on her way back to her quarters, barely standing, and he brought the rest of the way there. That was during the middle of the night, and the hours passed until dawn light was starting to come through the windows. She’s only now seeming to recover.

“Will you stop pacing?” she asks, voice even quieter than usual. “You know it…makes me anxious.”

Kamui stops immediately. “I’m sorry. Are you sure you don’t want me to go get Sakura?”

Azura turns to look at him. The pallor is starting to return to her cheeks, but her golden eyes are half-closed with exhaustion. “This is nothing to bother Sakura about when we must care for our wounded.”

“Would you like me to get her after you’re dead?”

The retort is harsher than he means it to be. Azura’s mouth pulls into a frown. “Kamui, please just let me rest. Trust me when I say that I will be just fine.”

He’s always been quick to trust others, especially when they plead to him—too quick, as Takumi said when he spared Zola. But while a weight does lift off Kamui’s shoulders in his haste to accept Azura’s reassurance, concern still swirls in his stomach.

He approaches her, wanting to kiss her forehead, but he stops himself. “Just promise me you’ll rest when you need it. Please.”

She smiles, just slightly, and it’s strained. “Of course, Kamui.”

He wants to say more, to trail is fingers through her hair and hold her close, but he just nods and leaves to let her get some more rest before the morning truly starts.

 

* * *

 

Time works so unnaturally in the astral plane. Lilith has tried to explain it to him multiple times, but he’s never been able to fully wrap his head around it and lets her set everyone’s schedules when the rest and recover from their battles in their normal reality. But even still, he knows he shouldn’t feel this tired and out of sorts even if he didn’t sleep at all.

He makes his rounds around the plane, trying to keep his mind occupied. It barely works, and he finds himself in front of the accessory shop without really knowing how he got there.

Kamui is about to go on his way when Scarlet pokes her head out of the window. The newest recruit has a shiny, studded bow in her hair. It was mostly her idea to make the shop, claiming it would brighten up the troops’ morale. That it does, but she most of all loves the shop, though Oboro comes a close second.

“Why the scaly face so early in the morning, boss?” she asks, leaning her arms on the windowsill.

Kamui frowns and touches his cheek. “I’m not a dragon right now, am I?”

Scarlet laughs. “It’s a wyvern rider expression. Come on in; I’ll make some tea.”

Chevois tea is distinctly Nohrian in taste, although Scarlet’s brew smells and tastes exactly like flowers. It’s delicious (especially after drinking Felicia’s brews on the daily), and Kamui nearly scalds his tongue on it in his haze.

“So,” Scarlet says, sitting across from him at the small table, nibbling on a biscuit. “What’s on your mind?”

Kamui is silent for a moment, weighing his options. Azura has always been a quiet, private person, and he doesn’t feel comfortable telling others about her ailments unless he were speaking to a healer like Sakura—it would be a breach of her trust otherwise.

“I’m…worried,” he says finally. When Scarlet lifts an eyebrow, he adds: “About Azura. She… I mean… With this war and everything, I’m afraid…”

“Afraid she’ll die?”

The words strike him deep in the chest, so much that he can’t speak when he nods.

Scarlet just nods in turn, her expression neutral in understanding; she doesn’t smile, nor does she frown. She takes a sip of her tea. “I don’t know how many people you’ve seen die, but you must have seen at least one to be speechless like that. In the rebellion, I’ve seen a fair number of people die from infection, or on the battlefield. The only good death I’ve seen is old age.

“It’s scary,” she continues. “But I had seen the terrors that Nohr wrought on even its own subjects, and I kept going. When the first person close to me died, I almost wanted to shut myself off from everyone…but you can’t do that. It drives you mad. It drives others mad. You have to be close to the others around you in war or else you won’t live—you’ll survive, but you won’t live.”

Scarlet takes another sip of her flowery tea. “This is partly why I have a personal question of my own to ask you, Kamui.” She leans forward, a smile blooming on her face. “Ryoma isn’t taken by any sort of royal engagement, is he?”

Kamui sputters on his tea, nearly spitting it out. He swallows and coughs, trying to get a hold of his breathing, and Scarlet just laughs.

“I-I don’t know,” Kamui says. “I mean, I don’t think so. He’s never mentioned it. No one else has, either.” He coughs again. “Why do you ask?”

“I’ve never met a man like Ryoma,” she says simply. “And if I do say so myself, I think he’s never met a woman like me.”

“Oh,” is all Kamui can say.

“And you?”

“And what?”

“Is there anyone you’ve met like that? And don’t say _like what_.”

A blush creeps across Kamui’s face. “…Azura,” he says, almost a whisper.

Scarlet nods. “I’m not going to tell you what to do about your problem. But you should really consider this: Plan like you’ll live past this war, and that she will live past this war. But live like neither of you will.”

 

* * *

 

Azura finds him as he stumbles back toward his treehouse, when the morning sun has fully lifted above the horizon. It’s almost like a dream, when she appears at his side and helps him stand straight.

“You look exhausted,” she says, and he wonders how she was so feeble the previous night and so strong now. “You didn’t get any sleep, did you?”

“I was worried about you.”

“So you didn’t go back to bed after I was fine?”

He just shakes his head. He’s too tired, his mind a foggy mess. He can’t make heads or tails of any situation at the moment, but he knows one thing: He wants to curl up in his bed and sleep. So he lets Azura help him toward his treehouse, though he has to use his own power to get up the ladder (what an odd, annoying choice, he thinks, resolving to have stairs made).

Felicia is in his room, looking lost as she places a tray of chipped cups of tea on the table. She whirls around when they enter, her eyes widening. “L-Lord Kamui! Are you all right?”

He crawls into bed, still wearing his skintight armor. “Just tired…”

He isn’t aware of anything for a long while, but when he wakes up, his mind is far less foggy. He blinks away a bit of sleep from his eyes, then rolls over.

Azura sits at the table, a book in hand. The fire in the hearth is low, dying. She looks up, and a relieved smile forms on her lips. “Good afternoon, Kamui. Are you feeling better?”

He sits up, blinking. “You helped me get back here, right?”

“I did.” The slightest laugh escapes her. “Good to see you can remember things from when you were dead tired.”

He feels a bit sore, and sticky and unclean from sleeping in his armor. He ignores the feeling and gets up, coming to sit in the other chair across the small table. That’s when he hesitates.

Azura tips her head to the side. “Kamui?”

“Did I upset you this morning?” he blurts.

“Upset me?”

“I mean, I was worried about you, and I kind of…snapped at you.” Kamui looks down at his hands. “As…as much as I trust you, Azura, I’m worried… I don’t want to lose you.”

She takes a breath, and he can see a wall rising in her gaze. “Kamui, I will be fine.”

He shakes his head. “Azura, I know you’ll do everything in your power to see this war through, as will I, but I…” His fist opens, his fingers stretching toward her hand. “…I want to be with you. Until then, until after then. For however long the rest of our lives are.”

Azura blinks, and her guardedness falls away, utter surprise in its stead. “Kamui?”

“We can marry after the war, if you want—so nothing’s in the way,” he says, rambling. “I don’t mind waiting so long as we’re together, so long as we have something to look forward to after the end of this…this mess. And I know that—”

“Kamui, I haven’t even said yes.”

He stops. “What?”

Azura wears a wide smile on her lips. She tries to hide it with her hand, but a laugh escapes between her fingers. Tears spill down her cheeks.

“You haven’t said ‘I love you.’” She’s still laughing. “I haven’t said it, either. You haven’t asked me to marry you. You’re just…barging along.” Her free hand takes his. “It’s quite rude, you know.”

“I…” He blinks at her, trying to recall their conversation, and their relationship. When has he not said _I love you_? Or was that always with his gestures and thoughts, and not his voice? Why, after all of their talks about their homelands, about their thoughts and futures, has she not grown to care for him like he cares for her? “I don’t…”

Azura squeezes his hand. Her fingers are cold like ice. “You did upset me earlier, a little. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be with you, too. I…love you, my sweet prince.” Her smile turns shy, a blush staining her cheeks.

“I…still don’t understand.”

She shakes her head, amused. “Are you still asleep?”

He runs a hand through his hair. “Maybe?”

“Well, if the gods permit me to ask such a selfish thing of you,” she says, wiping at the new tears forming in her eyes, “Will you tell me you love me?”

Kamui, despite his brain still moving at a snail’s pace to catch up with the past few minutes, immediately says, “I love you, Azura.”

She closes her eyes, as if relishing the sound of his words. “…And I love you.”

Neither say anything for a moment. The fire in the hearth completely dies out.

“May I ask one more thing of you?” She doesn’t open her eyes, and he wonders if she’s speaking only to him, or to someone—or something—else as well.

“Anything.”

“May I…stay by your side?”

He clasps her hand with both of his. “I would have you there always.”

Azura opens her eyes, tears sliding downward over her smile.


End file.
